BioShock Infinite DLC: Playing As Elizabeth Will Be Very Different

Players will step into the shoes of Elizabeth in the second episode of Burial At Sea, the upcoming story-based DLC for BioShock Infinite. Irrational Games stresses that Liz isn't just "Booker in a dress." Playing as her will be a very different experience.

"Elizabeth has to take things more from the side view,” Irrational level designer Amanda Jeffrey told IGN. "She needs to be kind of thinking in a roundabout way of how to deal with her enemies. And, sometimes, that might mean completely bypassing the enemy entirely, because she doesn't need to. It may mean, in another situation, using the enemy's strength against them."

"There's all of these different kinds of ways of being more thoughtful, and – I hesitate to say it – almost more feminine way of approaching a problem, where there's all of these people and, to be very brutally honest about it, they have the advantage in strength. But Elizabeth has the advantage in smarts. So, how that pans out and how that plays in the environment, I'm awfully excited to do. It'll be fantastic."

In BioShock Infinite's campaign, Elizabeth demonstrated the ability to manipulate tears in time and space. For example, she could summon a crate of ammo or a sentry drone to help the player. In Burial at Sea, players will have that power at their fingertips. It's just not clear how exactly it will be executed, though.

"There are some things that she can change, and some things that just won't make a difference if she changes them or not," Jeffrey said. "So she's not entirely godlike in her abilities. She will have far more powerful ways of interacting with the world than we saw in Infinite proper, but at the same time, it won't just be a case of walking to a space and going, ‘I'm just going to press a button, and now happy ending for everyone!’ Because, on the one hand, that wouldn't be any fun."

Burial at Sea is set in the underwater city of Rapture from the first two BioShock games, rather than the flying city of Columbia. At first, Elizabeth and Booker will have no memory of the events of Infinite's campaign. However, Jeffrey says that Liz will begin to piece things together at the end of the first episode - just in time for players to take control of her.

The release date for Burial at Sea hasn't been announced yet. Irrational told IGN that Episode One is about to enter beta. This will allow them to begin full development of the second episode. Because Episode 2 is still in its early stages, many of the fine details still have to be worked out.